Puddle Jumping in DCtag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-5179352012-02-16T15:33:45-05:00finding joy on and off the matTypePadPuddleJumpingInDchttp://feedburner.google.comConversing with the 4-Year-Oldtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c638753ef016762766a7b970b2012-02-16T15:33:45-05:002012-02-16T15:36:58-05:00Excerpts from conversations with my 4-year-old after picking her up from school today: Maya: "Can I use my new pencil to do homework this afternoon?" Jen: "Sure." M: "Can you help me because I don't know what homework is?" J: "Do you want an example of how a knock-knock joke is supposed to work?" M: "Yes." J: "Ok, knock, knock." M: "Who's there?" J: "Cars." M: "Cars who?" J: "Cars I love you." M: peals of laughter, "Knock, knock." J: "Who's there?" M: "Cars." J: "Cars who?" M: "Tree!" laughs even harder. J: Getting ready to close the rain cover on the bike trailer,"Ok, now remember that because of the rain, I won't be able to hear you while we ride home. We'll just have to talk when we get there. [15 min, max] Unless it's important, then just yell." . . . a little later, about half-way home M:...Jen Muellerhttp://puddle-jumping.com/2012/02/conversing-with-the-4-year-old.htmlRaising a vegetarian, or not.tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c638753ef0163009b88f7970d2012-02-02T15:08:56-05:002012-02-16T16:42:07-05:00First strawberry, approx 8 mo. Snap peas fresh from the market, not quite 2. Rainbow birthday cake, 4 yrs. Evidenced by more than 600 comments so far, I've clearly struck a nerve with my Care2 post about allowing my hitherto vegetarian child to purchase school lunch, meaning meat. I've only read a sampling of those comments, but, as you can imagine, they range from cheering me on for empowering Maya's choices to condeming me for failing to provide moral guidance and being a pushover parent. Help! My Vegetarian Child Wants to Eat Meat When I became a vegetarian at age 14, I was opting out of a food system I felt was cruel, corrupt, and environmentally harmful. Decades later I’m facing a dilemma that my 4-year-old wants to eat the lunches served in her school cafeteria, which means meat. After 3 out of 5 of her packed lunches came back...Jen Muellerhttp://puddle-jumping.com/2012/02/raising-a-vegetarian-or-not.htmlHigh Tea at the Mayflower Hoteltag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c638753ef016300107435970d2012-01-24T18:44:16-05:002012-01-24T18:56:55-05:00Back in July, on a total whim, I purchased a Groupon for tea for 2 at the Mayflower Hotel in DC. The above photos were taken during and immediately following Maya's first fancy afternoon tea. My original intention for tea was as a birthday treat. But the end of October was so full of birthday and Halloween that fancy tea didn't make the cut. Barely a blink later, we found ourselves in January with the Groupon expiration looming and having read a few reviews of the Mayflower that tea wasn't really child friendly after all. I almost passed the Groupon on via the neighborhood listserv, but another mom convinced me to just get dressed up and go. Verdict: No, it's not really child-friendly, at least not for 4-year-olds. The staff was professional, but not warm. I'm guessing that I'm not the only person who purchased a Groupon explicitly to take...Jen Muellerhttp://puddle-jumping.com/2012/01/high-tea-at-the-mayflower-hotel.htmlGreen Your Cycle in 2012 with Reusable Feminine Hygiene Productstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c638753ef016760ebc7f1970b2012-01-22T10:06:14-05:002012-01-23T08:23:25-05:00For this month's Green Moms Carnival, "Resolutions to Fight Climate Change" hosted by Strocel.com, I'm getting personal, really personal. But let's start with the big picture: E-Magazine reports that, in 1998, 6.5 billion tampons were thrown in the garbage or flushed into our already overburdened sewer systems and 13 billion disposable menstrual pads were thrown away. The Center for Marine Conservation reported that more than 170,000 plastic tampon applicators polluting our oceans were collected during beach cleanups in 1998 and 1999. Most disposable menstrual products are virgin paper products and deforestation in the tropics accounts for nearly 20 percent of human-generated, climate-changing carbon emissions. Add the global warming and trash concerns to worries about dioxin, a cancer-causing bi-product of bleaching paper and cotton, and many women are choosing reusable menstrual cups instead of disposable tampons (brands and resources outlined below the jump). While feminine hygiene products may not be the...Jen Muellerhttp://puddle-jumping.com/2012/01/green-your-cycle-in-2012-with-reusable-feminine-hygiene-products.htmlIf You Give a Mom a Muffintag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c638753ef0162ffc8bdf1970d2012-01-18T09:25:30-05:002012-01-18T14:22:23-05:00The poem below was emailed to me this week. If you are a parent who's read the "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie" book series by Laura Numeroff, this may strike a cord. If You Give A Mom A Muffin by Kathy Fictorie If you give a mom a muffin, She’ll want a cup of coffee to go with it. She’ll pour herself some. Her three-year-old will spill the coffee. She’ll wipe it up. Wiping the floor, she’ll find dirty socks. She’ll remember she has to do laundry. When she puts the laundry in the washer, She’ll trip over boots and bump into the freezer. Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan for supper. She will get out a pound of hamburger. She’ll look for her cookbook (“101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger”).** The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail....Jen Muellerhttp://puddle-jumping.com/2012/01/if-you-give-a-mom-a-muffin.htmlWhere Is Your Old Cell Phone? U.S. E-Waste Across the Globetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c638753ef0167609f833a970b2012-01-16T08:41:18-05:002012-01-18T14:19:36-05:00Originally published on Care2. Were you one of the millions of Americans to get an upgrade to one of your electronic devices this holiday season? You know you are not alone, of course. According to the Electronics Take Back Coalition, consumers in the United States will replace approximately 400 million consumer gadgets this year. Tiny Fraction of Obsolete Electronics Are Recycled Do you have any idea what happens to all the old cell phones, laptops, vcr players and other obsolete electronics we discard every year? Approximately 14 percent of those devices will be “recycled,” but e-waste recycling in the United States usually means exporting electronics to developing countries and what actually happens to the materials and the workers at recycling facilities is poorly regulated and sometimes completely unknown. Some electronics will be broken down to recover valuable metals from its components and some will get a second life in the...Jen Muellerhttp://puddle-jumping.com/2012/01/where-is-your-old-cell-phone-us-e-waste-across-the-globe.htmlProbably Not Going with the Zombie Nativity Scenetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c638753ef0162fd3b0095970d2011-12-02T07:43:54-05:002011-12-02T07:47:51-05:00One of the benefits, in my opinion, of having never spent the Christmas holidays in your own home is that you do not have to decorate. Photo (and exhibit) courtesy of the National Park Service We make special trips to see the lavish decorations at the U.S. Botanic Gardens and around the Whitehouse elipse and enjoy the tree and decorations at my parents' and sister's houses, but haven't ever bothered to decorate our own home. There's a chance that I'm not off the hook this year (plans are very much up in the air) and it's got me thinking decorations contingency plan. What I do know is that I'm not going with this motif: If it works for you, however, a zombie nativity set can be purchased from fetishforethics on Esty.Jen Muellerhttp://puddle-jumping.com/2011/12/probably-not-going-with-the-zombie-nativity-scene.html